SEQUIM – It’s nectar for body and mind, after a long day amid the lavender fields and fair.
Jazz in the Alley, the music festival within the Sequim Lavender Festival this weekend, is flowering madly thanks to pollination by local bees: Tracy Blume and Neil Culbertson of Notable Events in Sequim.
After beginning with three bands and three venues on one night in July 2007, they’ve doubled the sponsorships and the choices available during the concert series, which they call Jazz in the Alley, or JITA.
“We have six different venues, six kinds of jazz and six different cuisines this year,” Blume told the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, in her honey-smooth voice.
Perhaps the sweetest thing: the concerts are all free.
Blume, of course, is the vocalist fronting Jazz in Blume, the ensemble to perform Friday night in Seal Street Park, on West Washington Street just west of Sequim Avenue, and Saturday night at Heritage Square at Second Avenue and Bell Street.
Blume’s bunch is one of a sextet of bands clustering downtown for JITA: There’s Pearl Django, a well-known gypsy jazz outfit from Seattle, at Heritage Square on Friday night and Seal Street Park on Saturday; on both Friday and Saturday night, the No Inhibitions traditional Dixieland band from Silverdale will appear at Swain’s Outdoor on West Washington Street; and Jenny Davis, a Port Townsend straight-ahead jazz vocalist, will sing outside The Brokers Group offices.
Also, Just Friends Trio will dish out jazz standards at Dungeness Bay Wine & Cheese; and Half Pack Live, a Seattle swing band specializing in Sinatra, will appear at the Islander Pizza & Pasta Shack.
Two nights of tunes
“It’ll take two nights to get around to all of them,” said Culbertson, adding that Rocket Transportation’s shuttle vans will provide free rides around downtown during JITA.
Culbertson is an agent at The Brokers Group Real Estate Professionals, JITA’s presenting sponsor since the event debuted in 2007.
Underwriting free jazz concerts may not bring clients directly to The Brokers Group, co-owner Deborah Norman acknowledged.
And paying for the sponsorship was a sacrifice in this, a rocky year for the real estate industry — “but it’s well worth it,” Norman said.
“What goes around comes around,” and she sees JITA as one more thing making Sequim a good place to live.
“Anything that benefits the community,” she added, “will benefit the business.”
Norman, an artist for whom “real estate pays the bills,” said she and her company “really believe in the arts. We make decisions based on what we believe in.”
JITA is “a phenomenal way to spotlight local talent,” she added, and to cooperate with musicians and other sponsoring businesses.
Last year, Norman enjoyed watching the variety of people who came out for the array of jazz outfits.
“I saw young people, people who brought their kids, and lots of seniors, holding hands,” she said.
JITA’s other major sponsors include First Federal, 7 Cedars Casino and nearly 75 other local businesses.
“Almost everyone who participated last year was eager to do it again,” said Culbertson.
“It’s just fun, and it’s something different for Sequim.”
Jazz dedication
The 2009 Jazz in the Alley performances are dedicated to a Sequim woman who believed in the mix-music-with-business idea from the start.
Jean Haught, sole proprietor of Dungeness Bay Wine & Cheese until her death in June, brainstormed with Blume back in 2007 and came up with the concept.
Haught and her son, Craig, who is running the shop now with his fiancee, Kim Farrell, came up with another idea: Jazz in the Alley-label wine.
Wine will also be available this weekend during each JITA concert, along with hors d’oeuvres and supper from — depending on the venues you visit — Jeremiah’s barbecue, Galare Thai, Tootsie’s, Jean’s Deli, the Islander Pizza & Pasta and A Catered Affair of Sequim.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@ peninsuladailynews.com.
